Ammassari-Teule M, Fagioli S, Rossi-Arnaud C
Istituto di Psicobiologia e Psicofarmacologia del C.N.R., Rome, Italy.
Physiol Behav. 1994 Feb;55(2):341-5. doi: 10.1016/0031-9384(94)90144-9.
C57BL/6 mice, aged 2 or 24 months, were tested in a radial maze and observed for an 8-min period, repeated on 3 consecutive days, in an open-field situation with a novel object. In the eight-arm maze, the number of unrepeated path choices made by old mice does not significantly increase with training, whereas it does in young mice. Older animals also take significantly longer to solve the task but the two age groups do not differ with respect to how many paths they run before making the first error or in the strategies used to solve the task. In the open-field situation, the two age groups differ with regard to grooming and rearing behaviour, while in the novelty situation, older animal show a higher level of locomotor activity, perform less freezing, and interact more with the novel object. Habituation curves for all parameters, except grooming in the open field, do not differ between the two groups, thus indicating that this form of nonassociative learning does not vary substantially with increasing age. Results are discussed in terms of preserved cognitive abilities during senescence in that strain.
2月龄和24月龄的C57BL/6小鼠在放射状迷宫中接受测试，并在有新物体的旷场环境中观察8分钟，连续3天重复进行。在八臂迷宫中，老年小鼠不重复路径选择的次数不会随着训练显著增加，而年轻小鼠会。老年动物完成任务的时间也明显更长，但两个年龄组在首次犯错前跑过的路径数量或解决任务所采用的策略方面没有差异。在旷场环境中，两个年龄组在梳理毛发和直立行为方面存在差异，而在新环境中，老年动物表现出更高水平的运动活动，较少出现僵住不动的情况，并且与新物体的互动更多。除了旷场中的梳理毛发外，两组所有参数的习惯化曲线没有差异，因此表明这种非联想学习形式不会随着年龄增长而有显著变化。根据该品系衰老过程中保留的认知能力对结果进行了讨论。
